Huberman Lab
The Most Effective Weight Training, Cardio & Nutrition for Women | Dr. Lauren Colenso-Semple
16 Feb 2026
Chapter 1: What are the key differences in muscle tissue between men and women?
As a woman, if I honestly thought there were things we should do differently to optimize our results, of course I would be doing them myself and telling other women to do them too. The narrative that women need a sex-specific program or nutrient timing guidance or a particular intensity of exercise or rep range or all of it,
It makes women feel like they're being spoken to and being considered and they're in their part of this community instead of, oh, you know, just do what your boyfriend does or what your husband does. So the narrative is very much women are not men. And so obviously women need something different. The data says men and women respond to exercise very similarly.
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Dr. Lauren Colenso Semple. She holds a PhD in integrative physiology and is a certified strength and conditioning specialist.
She is an expert in both the science and practice of building muscle and strength, cardiovascular fitness, and the relationship between hormones and exercise. Today's discussion is focused on fitness for women and how it overlaps directly with the same things that men should do for their fitness. Therefore, today's discussion is relevant to both women and men.
Dr. Colenso Semple explains how to structure your ideal training routine according to the time you have available and your health and fitness goals. She also clearly explains what the science says about if and when women's hormone cycles, life stages such as menopause, and things like birth control should actually impact how women should train and when.
As we all know, information about best practices for fitness, nutrition, and health are hotly debated online. Dr. Colenso Semple has become one of the most trusted voices for explaining what the science says about women's specific fitness. as well as for delivering clear, actionable evidence for protocols that work in the real world. It was a true honor and pleasure to host her on the podcast.
Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science-related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Dr. Lauren Colenso Semple.
Dr. Lauren Colenso Semple, welcome.
Thank you.
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Chapter 2: How does hormonal variation affect exercise performance in women?
You said something, several things, very interesting. If I understood correctly, if a male is somewhere in the reference range, so typically I believe that's somewhere between 300 nanograms per deciliter and 900 nanograms per deciliter, maybe in some countries it goes up to 1,200, but in any case, that a male with...
400 nanogram per deciliter testosterone versus 600, it's not as if the male with 600 can make, you know, that much more muscle growth. And the same is true for women?
That's right. Okay. So as long as you're within that broad, normal range, and of course, what's normal for you differs from what's normal for someone else. So if there are...
changes that might impact you because now you're below what is your normal then that can manifest in a variety of ways but there isn't this clear kind of linear relationship where we would say oh let's measure your testosterone you are going to be a hard gainer or you're going to put on mass really easily.
If we were to just look at people who are not chemically augmented in any way, not know their testosterone in any way, and here I'm referring to women specifically, how much individual variation is there or what's known about the individual variation among women in terms of the amount of potential to grow muscle and strength?
Is it true that some women have a much greater potential to build muscle mass that's independent of their testosterone levels?
I'd say, yes, it's independent of the testosterone levels, but we're going to start with different baselines. And then it depends on the stimulus that you are using for growth. And some people are adapting to that growth stimulus to a greater extent than others. But part of that is effective, consistent, progressive training. And then part of it is arguably some genetic factors.
But when we even look at the molecular level, say fiber type differences, we see adaptation in both sexes that is quite dramatic. And that tells us that both men and women have the potential for large adaptations in either direction, whether we're saying, you know, to endurance type training or resistance type training.
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Chapter 3: What is the role of resistance training for women during different life stages?
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I want to put aside the use of exogenous testosterone therapy, although we can return to that a little bit later because it seems to be a popular theme in women's health circles now, especially in the perimenopause, excuse me, and menopause conversation.
But it's well known from studies, I believe that were exclusively carried out in men, that training a certain way, sprints, resistance training, and we talk about exactly how, can increase circulating testosterone in meaningful ways that can feed back on psychology and can feed back on growth and strength development, et cetera. Have the same studies been carried out in women?
In other words, if a woman lifts weights in a certain manner for 45 minutes or 60 minutes, do we expect a big surge in her circulating levels of testosterone?
Well, the circulating levels are already quite low. And one of the issues here is that the way testosterone has been measured in women for a very long time is such that the assays are not capable of detecting some of these normal low levels. So we know a lot less about those lower kind of circulating levels of testosterone in women than I think... people acknowledge.
But more importantly, that acute response to exercise, that increase in post-exercise testosterone, growth hormone, et cetera, people used to think that was the driver of hypertrophy. And so there were all of these training styles to sort of maximize that response. And so people would
promote high rep training or supersets and they'd say, oh, you know, this is going to really maximize that response. But what we know now is that response, although acutely, it's not the driver of growth long term. And so it doesn't really make sense to chase that short term response because it's not predictive of a longer term adaptation.
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Chapter 4: How can women effectively structure their resistance training routines?
Until fairly recently, Women doing resistance training, especially heavy for them, you know, somewhere between 70 and 90% of a one rep max or even a one rep max, so heavy for them, was scary for a lot of women. Women in my family, and they're like, I don't want to lift weights. I don't want to get too big. This is, you know, was a common statement. What do you think changed?
I think part of it was the introduction of the bikini category in competitive bodybuilding because that was a level of muscularity that people didn't look at and say, oh, that's bulky. That was, oh, she looks good in a bikini. And so people wanted to look like that, realized that they needed to lift weights differently. And it kind of opened up a door for resistance training being more feminine.
I think that in combination with the introduction of more group fitness that had resistance training components, CrossFit, which a lot of women were drawn to, I think all of that has made women feel more comfortable. empowered to lift weights and less fearful of the results.
Although I think there is still a sentiment in some circles that lifting weights or lifting too heavy is going to make you huge instead of, you know, quote unquote, toned. Also, if there are all of these, where are all of these bulky women? When do you, how often do you walk down the street and see an incredibly jacked woman? It's very, very rare.
And so clearly no one is getting huge by accident. You're not getting extremely muscular without working really, really hard and often incorporating some pharmacological help.
For a woman who's not currently doing resistance training, maybe we could talk to her for a second. At what age is too early for a woman to do resistance training? What does the data say?
I think it's a cultural thing. stereotype that at least in high school, the girls didn't belong in the weight room. That was certainly my experience growing up. Now I think that's shifting. And so it's not that it's unsafe. It's just that it wasn't done. And so people weren't teaching teenage girls how to lift weights.
And there's a lot of advantages to that, especially if you're playing sports, because we have female athletes who are teenagers and then going into college and continuing to play their sports. And there can be not only a performance improvement, but also an injury reduction from doing some resistance training along with your sports-specific training.
So I think it's certainly valuable to start younger, also from a habit-building perspective. perspective, because I know, you know, if you're somebody who has gone decades without ever doing a lot of structured exercise or without ever lifting weights, it can feel kind of daunting and intimidating to learn the new skill. That said, we know that you can gain muscle
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Chapter 5: What are the misconceptions about Pilates and body composition?
But Pilates is particularly guilty of promising these dramatic changes in body composition. And that if you do this class that you're going to get toned. You're going to increase your muscle mass and get these long, lean lines, or you'll look like a dancer. And so when we use that word, which we don't, toned, but when people use it, they mean increase muscle size and decrease body fat.
And the most effective and efficient way to accomplish that is through resistance training to increase muscle size and through nutritional adjustments to decrease body fat. Even if you're happy doing the Pilates and walking right now, and I'm not saying give that up because I'm a fan of all physical activity that people enjoy.
Chapter 6: How does resistance training impact age-related muscle loss?
But it is not sufficient resistance, it's not progressive resistance to stave off that age-related muscle loss that I mentioned. All we need is two 20-minute workouts per week, full body resistance training, to make a pretty powerful impact on trying to attenuate some of that decline. And losing muscle mass,
increasing fall risk, fracture risk, all of those downstream health effects that lead to an existence in your 80s or 90s that is not very functionally independent, we don't want that. And so if we know we can implement this and it's not that much of a time investment, it's not that much of a financial investment, it's kind of a no brainer.
I'm so glad you mentioned the genetic piece because Genetics are huge when it comes to, you know, lean mass to non lean mass body ratio. People don't, I mean, obviously, people over consume calories, they're going to gain weight, some people more quickly than others, perhaps.
Chapter 7: What role do genetics play in muscle mass and body composition?
But, you know, it's is such a big factor. It seems to me that so is someone having done strength and speed sports when they were younger. But you look at someone who was a gymnast, a sprinter, a pole vaulter, a competitive tennis player, he got a lot of like speed type movement.
And I've noticed even when they just do yoga or something in their 30s, I know this because as a graduate student, as you know, right, when I was in my 20s and then a postdoc in my 30s, you know, I was exercising less. And the people around you are exercising less. So you're just doing experiments all the time and studying all the time. And some people just seem to stay really fit through that.
And you go, like, what do you do? And they're like, oh, I just like these days, I just do yoga. Did you play a sport in high school? Yeah, I was like, you know, D1 soccer, gymnast. And I do think that people who play these competitive sports early in life, they hold on to a certain amount of musculature.
Now, maybe there's a selection bias that led them to be a D1 athlete combined with training, right? So they were kind of had genetics that then they built on. But what I'm, I feel like these situations are very misleading. And with men, it tends to be misleading where somebody is extremely muscular and lean. I think of my friend Nesima. He does a podcast with Mark Bell.
Nesima is completely steroid and TRT free. He really is. I believe him. And, and it's actually to speak to your earlier point, his testosterone, he's shown his charge to somewhere in like the mid fives. The guy is like his muscle density is insane. He walks around with 8% body fat. He's a terrific athlete, et cetera. He has genetic gifts that he's built upon with very hard work.
So I can't look at him and say, oh, I'm going to just do what he does, right? The parallel in women's fitness, and I don't want to discount the ā you know, the women out there who want to be very, very muscular, but let's just consider the averages here. They might look at their Pilates teacher and she might've been a gymnast who was also slightly genetically gifted and now can just do that.
And no one talks about this. And it really contorts people's thinking and people are trying to figure out what to do, what to eat, et cetera. So I'd love for you to elaborate on this a bit more where, if you think it's appropriate, but like no one acknowledges this.
I share your hypothesis about the activity you do as a kid. Even if you don't become an elite athlete, I think that is something that does kind of stick with you. And let's say you were a child gymnast and then you pick up lifting in your 20s. I see women develop that upper body strength a lot more easily because I think they...
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Chapter 8: How does cortisol affect women's fitness and body composition?
were doing that in childhood. The genetic variability is huge because it's the structure, our bone structure, our muscle insertions, The size of our waist. There are certain things that we can't change. You can't change your shape. Yes, we can gain fat, lose fat, gain muscle, lose muscle. But some people have naturally broader shoulders or have.
Delt insertions that mean they have that look of these capped shoulders or they just don't carry a lot of body fat on their arms or on their legs. And so the way that where we tend to store fat or distribute that fat differently. varies from person to person. The place in which we lose fat first and last will vary.
And often when you compare yourself to somebody with a very different structure, perhaps they have a metabolism that allows for them to maintain a certain body weight or a certain body fat at a really comfortable caloric intake. Whereas for you to maintain that certain level of body size or body fat would require a very uncomfortable, unsustainable level of caloric intake.
And that is just is what it is.
In the old days of fitness, meaning when I started in the 90s, it's not old days, but here I am. There was this idea of ectomorph. endomorph and mesomorph. We don't hear that anymore. Ectomorph being very thin, long sinewy muscles, small joints, quote-unquote hard gainer. There was mesomorph, which is the kind of, you know, more muscular, somewhat lean perhaps.
And then there was the endomorph idea, somebody carrying a lot of excess body fat kind of... Is that just completely irrelevant now in terms of picking training programs? Have we just really landed in a place where it's all about, hey, listen, if you're a endomorph, you're eating more than you should. There's muscle under there, perhaps. If you're an ectomorph,
You're just maintaining a very low body weight. You need to lift more and eat more. Is there any reality to this?
I could be wrong, but I think those labels and those descriptors don't even come from any sort of physiology research or framework. I think they come from psychology. which makes no sense given that we're using them to describe how one might expect to adapt to training.
You can say, oh, if you're somebody who is kind of skinny, maybe you can expect to be a hard gainer, but sometimes that's not the case at all. You see teenage boys that were kind of skin and bones and lanky, and then they start lifting and they blow up.
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